The Which Way Tree

This novel by Elizabeth Crook reprises the setting she has used in several other of her novels, the Texas Hill country, this time during the post-Civil War era. When a marauding panther invades the Shreve homestead, it catches 6-year-old Samantha outside.

"...her mother fights it long enough to save the girl but loses her own life. The incident leaves young Sam disfigured and bent on vengeance. Six years later, she and her half brother, Ben, having also lost their father to “fever,” are living miserably by themselves when the big cat returns. Their efforts to trap the beast fall short, but they find an ally in a Mexican man named Pacheco while they make a dire enemy of a Confederate soldier named Hanlin, who aims a gun at Sam in their first confrontation and loses a finger when she gets off a lucky shot. Also lucky is Hanlin’s knowledge of a dog in the vicinity that specializes in panther tracking and is owned by his uncle, Preacher Dob. After much palaver, Hanlin departs, for a time, while Dob and his old dog join the quest. The trek that follows recalls Cormac McCarthy’s horseback meandering and keen eye for terrain and flora in The Crossing. There are also obvious echoes of True Grit, though Sam is even more fiercely single-minded than Mattie. Most unavoidable is the 90-ton whale in the room. Ben, the engaging narrator who delivers the story in the form of dispatches written for a judge weighing evidence against Hanlin, mentions early on that he has twice read Moby-Dick. He refers to it many more times for any reader who doesn’t make a connection with Sam’s obsessive drive to destroy an almost-mythic beast that scarred her face and is known to some as El Demonio." (Kirkus)

Booklist concludes, "This is a story of unremitting deprivation allayed by unexpected kindness, with a dangerous chase motivated by love and suffused with humanity." I would agree with with School Library Journal that "Samantha Shreve remains an enigmatic character throughout Crook's new novel and emerges as a heroine in her wayward, single-minded resolve to end the life of the panther that killed her mother and left Samantha...scarred." Speaking of brother Benjamin, Publishers Weekly says "Crook crafts Benjamin's narration beautifully, finding a winning balance between naiveté and wisdom, thoughtfulness and grit." Library Journal suggests who might enjoy this book. "Crook's ... fifth novel will be a must-read for fans of Joe Lansdale's Western adventures and Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers. Readers new to the Western genre will be hooked if they start with this compelling novel."